GLP-1 Drugs, Heart Health, and Prostate Cancer
While there is limited data on GLP-1 drugs in prostate cancer, they may offer cardiovascular and metabolic benefits, particularly for patients starting hormone therapy. Decisions should be individualized with a care team, as research is ongoing to better understand their role in prostate cancer care.
Phillip Koo:
There’s not much data on GLP-1s and prostate cancer, but I think it's a question that a lot of people have, and when you start talking about survivorship and cardiovascular events, and then you hear about GLP-1s being the miracle drug for metabolic syndrome and cardiac events and whatnot.
How do you counsel that without having any Level 1 data?
Zachary Klaassen:
Yeah, it's a… again, another common question, and I think that my… I'm gonna start by saying. Each person, if they're interested, should talk to their physician, because there's a lot going on with GLP-1, who's eligible, who's not. I will say, we don't have a lot of information in terms of, does it make your prostate cancer better?
But what I will say is there's emerging data from a cardioprotective aspect. So I could see where somebody is really high risk for cardiovascular issues, starts hormone therapy, starts something else with hormone therapy where there's a multidisciplinary discussion that, yeah, maybe a GLP-1 is worth it for that cardioprotective effect.
And so, it's definitely more to learn from that, I think, particularly how it pertains to the prostate cancer and whether it's beneficial from that standpoint. But we're starting to see, because of those things you mentioned, the metabolic syndrome, the heart protective aspect as well, where I could see it coming into aspects of higher-risk patients starting on hormone therapy.
Phillip Koo:
You know, it's interesting, we are seeing more research, applications being submitted trying to study GLP-1s in prostate cancer, and obviously, the more money we're able to raise, the more of those studies we'll be able to fund and get some of those answers, which I think are going to be extremely important, because I don't think GLP-1s are going anywhere, so…
Zachary Klaassen:
No, they're not, and I think… I think there's a lot to learn in terms of how this all works, and I think these are really important studies.
